Holdren promoted to deputy service director

Wednesday

The city of Gahanna has promoted Matthew Holdren as its new deputy service director.

The city of Gahanna has promoted Matthew Holdren as its new deputy service director.

Holdren has worked as a project manager for the city during the past year, overseeing private development and capital investment projects and miscellaneous projects for the service department.

"Matthew Holdren brings a great deal and talent and energy to his new position as deputy director of public service," said Dottie Franey, service director. "Matthew holds a bachelor's of construction-systems management from the Ohio State University and a master's of business administration from Franklin University. His education, coupled with his desire to serve the community in which he was raised, will be a great asset to the city of Gahanna."

Holdren will be paid a salary of $70,400 plus an insurance and benefits package of $30,356, for a total of $100,756 annually.

Before coming to Gahanna, he worked as an engineering technician for the city of Westerville's planning and development department for several years.

"As a native of Gahanna, I cannot tell you what an honor and a privilege it is to serve a community I have always called home," Holdren said. "I am grateful for the opportunity to serve in this new capacity, and I am eager to extend the city's customer focus in my new role as deputy director."

When former deputy service director Mike Andrako left Gahanna late last year to accept a director's position in Marysville, Franey said, Holdren maintained his duties as project manager and took over many of the deputy director duties.

She said the project manager position has been vacated.

"Matthew's knowledge and expertise, along with his desire to serve the citizens of Gahanna, has been a valuable asset to the public-service department," Mayor Becky Stinchcomb said. "In the absence of a deputy director, Matthew took on additional responsibilities to help maintain the continuity of the department.

"Matthew's promotion is not only an example of how we are retaining our employee talent, but (also) how we are evolving our organization structure to meet the needs of our community."

Niel Jurist, city public-information manager, said the service department has a long history of evaluating open positions as individuals retire or move on to other careers.

Through streamlining operations and distributing duties among a team of talented and hardworking individuals, she said, the department has been able to reduce its total workforce from 49 in 2004 to 35 in 2014.

That number includes the reduction of five full-time positions, eight part-time positions, and one personal services contract.

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